Sheik Alhilali drew widespread condemnation for likening
scantily clad women to uncovered meat eaten by animals in a sermon
to 500 people last month, The Australian reported
today.

"I unreservedly apologise to any woman who is offended by my
comments," he said in a statement today.

"I had only intended to protect women's honour, something lost
in The Australian presentation of my talk."

Prime Minister John Howard said the sheik's remarks were
"appalling and reprehensible".

He told reporters on a drought inspection tour of western NSW:
"They are quite out of touch with contemporary values in
Australia.

"The idea that women are to blame for rapes is preposterous.

"I not only reject the comments, I condemn them
unconditionally."

Sheik Hilaly's reported comments, made in a Ramadan sermon,
compared women who wore make-up and dressed immodestly to meat that
attracted cats.

He blamed women who "sway suggestively" and who wore make-up and
no hijab (Islamic scarf) for sexual attacks.

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the
street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without
a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the
cats or the uncovered meat?" he said.

"The uncovered meat is the problem.

"If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem
would have occurred."

Mr Howard said the sheik's remarks clearly related to a
"particularly appalling" rape trial in Sydney.

Asked if the sheik should resign, Mr Howard replied: "It's not
for me to say what position he should hold in the Islamic
faith.

"But it is for me as Prime Minister to say I totally reject the
notion that the way in which women dress and deport themselves can
in any way be used as a semblance of justification for rape."

A Muslim leader has likened the comments to Pope Benedict XVI's
recent speech about Islam that provoked violent street
protests.

The former chairman of the Prime Minister's Muslim Community
Reference Group, Ameer Ali, said the comments were similar to those
in a speech which the Pope gave last month in which he quoted a
14th-century emperor regarding Muslims. The Pope later
apologised.

"The Pope used an inappropriate quotation and people said he
should be removed from the papacy and something inappropriate has
happened here also," Dr Ali told smh.com.au.

"It's unfortunate that he used this colourful terminology to
describe the dangers in dressing provocatively."

However, he said the cleric did not condone rape and Australian
women should not be insulted.

The Islamic Council of NSW dubbed the comments as "un-Islamic,
un-Australian and unacceptable".

A spokesman for the council, Ali Roude, today said he was
"astonished" at Sheik al Hilaly's comments, saying he "had failed
both himself and the Muslim community".

"While we respect the rights of any Australian citizen to
freedom of speech, there is a further responsibility upon our civic
leaders, be they religious, political or bureaucratic, to offer
appropriate guidance to the people under their care," Mr Roude
said.

"The comments widely reported today do no such thing."

Sheik al Hilaly had seriously misrepresented the teachings of
Islam in his comments, which were offensive to both sexes, Mr Roude
said.

The comments also showed a deep misunderstanding of rape and
personal violence, which Mr Roude described as "crimes of
power".

"As a father, brother and son myself, I take offence at the
portrayal of both men and women in the alleged published
comments."

Mr Roude said he had known Sheik al Hilaly for many years and
was deeply disappointed he had made the remarks, which were in no
way shared or endorsed by the council.

Former secretary of the Australian Federation of Islamic
Councils Shujat Mantoo said the sheik was "probably out of line",
but he defended his right to stay in Australia.

"There would be many people like [the sheik] who uphold those
views, and there would be among mainstream Christians, but we don't
simply deport them. We educate them," Mr Mantoo said.

The sheik's comments have drawn strong criticism from some
federal politicians and the federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner
Pru Goward.

"It is incitement to a crime. Young Muslim men who now rape
women can cite this in court, can quote this man ... their leader
in court," she told the Nine Network.

"It's time we stopped just saying he should apologise. It is
time the Islamic community did more than say they were horrified. I
think it is time he left."

NSW Premier Morris Iemma denounced the sheik for his
"outrageous" comments and called on the Muslim community to take
action against him.

"He ought to be held account for his comments," Mr Iemma said.
"What's in the papers this morning are offensive and outrageous and
ought to be condemned and retracted. He does not have a flash
record as far as these sorts of statements."

Treasurer Peter Costello branded the comments "totally
unacceptable".

He called for Muslim leaders to condemn the comments,
disassociate themselves from them, and pull their leader into
line.

The Treasurer said comparing women to uncovered meat invited
people to treat them in a degrading and dehumanising way.

He said the leaders of Catholic and the Anglican churches in
Australia would never make such a comment.

"But I hope that the moderate Muslim leaders will speak out
today and condemn these comments.

"Make it clear to Muslims that this is not the view of Islam and
that they will really take some kind of action to disassociate
themselves from the comments which Sheik al Hilaly has made.

"And take some action to try and pull him into line."

Mr Costello said that, in light of a series of Sydney gang rapes
in 2000 committed by young Muslim men, the sheik's message was
dangerous because it seemed to justify rape.

"If you have a significant religious leader like this preaching
to a flock in a situation where we have had gang rapes, in a way
that seems to make it justifiable, or at least lighten the
dehumanising and degrading extent of the offence, then people that
listen to that kind of comment can get the wrong idea.

6040APhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/national/lakemba-shakes-the-sheik/2006/10/26/1161749248850.htmlLakemba shakes the sheiktext/html-documenthttp://media.fairfax.com.au/?rid=23014Call for sheik to govideo/standard